North Korea has loaded two intermediate-range missiles onto mobile launchers and hidden them in an unidentified facility near the east coast, Seoul military sources said Friday, triggering speculation that the North is ready for an abrupt missile launch.

Earlier this week, the communist state had moved the "Musudan" medium-range missiles to its east coast, prompting the United States to send its advanced missile defense system to its base on the Pacific Ocean island of Guam.

South Korea has also sent its Aegis destroyers equipped with advanced radar systems to the East and West Seas.

South Korean and U.S. intelligence officials have been closely monitoring the North Korean facility believed to contain the Musudan missiles on the TELs (transporter-erector-launcher). The missile can fly 3,000-4,000 kilometers and is capable of hitting the U.S. base in Guam in the Pacific Ocean.

"Early this week, the North has moved two Musudan missiles on the train and placed them on mobile launchers," a senior military official familiar with the knowledge of the matter said.

The North's concealing the missiles atop the mobile launcher platform is seen as an attempt to launch missiles in a surprise move, the official said, noting it was not clear whether the move is for a test firing or military drills. The isolated communist nation has not yet conducted a test firing of the Musudan missile, which was first revealed to the international community in October 2010 during a military parade in Pyongyang.

On Thursday, CNN reported classified images and communications intercepts showing that North Korea has moved two mobile missiles, launchers and fuel tanks to its east coast, citing an anonymous American official.

In response to the North's military move, South Korea has sent two Aegis destroyers equipped with advanced radar systems to both of its coasts, Navy officials said.

The 7,600-ton Aegis destroyers with SPY-1 radar, which can track hundreds of targets as far as 1,000 kilometers away, have been on standby on the east and west coasts of the Korean Peninsula to track missile launches by Pyongyang, according to a senior Navy official.

"If the North fires off a missile, we will trace its trajectory," the official said asking for anonymity citing confidential information.

The South Korean military is also operating the ground-based missile defense radar system Green Pine, and the early warning aircraft Peace Eye under stepped up military readiness status to prepare for a potential rocket launch, according to the officials.

"We are closely monitoring North Korea's missile preparations, but it is not yet clear when and where it will fire off a missile," defense ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said in a briefing. "We will step up our military posture if the North's missile affects us." In response to media reports that the North may plan to launch a missile in the coming days or weeks, Kim said Pyongyang could pick a launching day it deems "meaningful," without elaboration.

Outside observers see a high chance that Pyongyang may launch the missile in mid-April to celebrate the April 15 birthday of Kim Il-sung, the communist nation's late founder and the young leader Kim Jong-un's grandfather, in a move to bolster the regime's grip on power.

Meanwhile, the defense ministry has dispatched a team of inspectors to the front-line island of Yeonpyeong to look into the border crossing by a North Korean defector across the tensely guarded western sea border.

The 28-year-old defector, who was living in the South, slipped through radar monitoring on Wednesday night to sail across the maritime border in the Yellow Sea, sparking security concerns at a time of military tensions with the North.

"Investigations are currently underway," Kim said. "After the inspection, we'll figure out what kind of additional measures are needed" to strengthen border security.

I’m a big enough weirdo to find the whole thing vastly suspicious. I just can’t take it seriously; is it just obama trying to seem bad ass, like “I got this guys”? Or, if they truly are getting ready to fire one off, why don’t we take it out now?

Bluffing or not, they’ve lost one important tactical advantage and that’s the element of surprise. I’m thinking diversionary tactics where everyone’s attention is over the skies of east asia, then Tehran attacks Tel Aviv, or some similar scenario.

Their subs could sink a ship (Cheonan), they could shell an island (they did that too), they could send sabotuers and terrorists through a tunnel under the DMZ or and them by sea (thy did that before too) they could launch a missile they could do a lot of different things. They have even blown up a Korean Air Lines plane with a bomb.

Until the south begins hitting them back HARD, the Nork leaders won’t take them too seriously

To those of you who really care, there's an expandable topo map of Korea that's worth studying. Like Lt. Col. North said:

"Official Washington's response to this new round of North Korean saber rattling has exacerbated anxiety in Seoul, Tokyo and U.S. Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii. Last week, the Obama administration launched a rhetorical counterattack against Pyongyang and widely publicized the deployment of strike aircraft, U.S. Navy surface combatants and ballistic missile defense assets 

including two sea-based radar platforms and ground-based missile interceptors to Guam.

One senior military officer put it this way:

"All this should have been done very quietly and reassured our allies. Instead, the Obama administration is turning this into their version of John Kennedy's 'Seven Days in May.'If they keep this up, everyone out here will have nukes."

Well put. The folks who canceled White House tours to save money need to get out their history books. The first occupant of the White House to receive a Nobel Prize was famous for saying,

"Speak softly, and carry a big stick." "

South Korea SHOULD be angry at the ILLEGAL ALIEN IN CHIEF. There's at least 4 million or more people in Seoul alone, that will be the first to feel the fire, if things go bad. When my last tour in Osan AB was over in 1995, they were worried about two renegade generals in North Korea that wanted to start the battle and get North Korea's loss over with, so the people of North Korea could get out from under the dictatorship, and begin to rebuild. South Korea was worried about having to support all those starving people in North Korea when North Korea collapses.

There's no good way to handle this. A lot of people are going to die. But if we must handle it, then do a preemptive strike, a very LARGE preemptive strike, and tactical nukes will have to be used at the very start. If we're going to do it, then do it right, and don't try to play small skirmishes and get more people killed. We know where the North Korean Leaders live and sleep, so destroy them first.

I'm thinking all this North Korean poppy-cock is a coordinated diversion to give Iran a lil more time to further their nuclear work.

The example should be set here and now. Preemptive strike on these NK missile launchers we supposedly know are being setup on their east coast.

Reach out and touch’em. Demonstrate our technological abilities and kill two birds with one stone. Knock out lil Kim's missile capability from afar and show Iran...Keep up your shenanigans....and YOU'RE next.

Have you noticed in every photo the generals surrounding Kim Jong-un are 65 y.o. plus. They date from his father’s era and they are dying off. Kim Jong-un needs to test the loyalty of the next crop against heighten military tension...read bluster.. Then he’ll pick the cream of the most devoted and golag or simply execute the rest. It’s a purge, Stalin did it all the time. This is page three in the leftist dictator’s handbook.

Kim Jong-un needs to test the loyalty of the next crop against heighten military tension...read bluster.. Then hell pick the cream of the most devoted and golag or simply execute the rest. Its a purge, Stalin did it all the time. This is page three in the leftist dictators handbook.

Sounds just like the aftermath of Benghazi.

34
posted on 04/05/2013 1:11:51 PM PDT
by BerryDingle
(I know how to deal with communists, I still wear their scars on my back from Hollywood-Ronald Reagan)

When I was in Korea, the Blackcats had a problem on launch,and twice their tails fell off. Twice the Blackcat logo on the side of the crate, someone stenciled "Kitty Litter" below the CatHead with whiskers. Did they ever get that "youtoo" problem fixed?

Those birds have all kinds of issues. We only had one major issue because of maintenance malpractice. One burned up in flight and got sent home in a C141. A few maintainers lost their jobs over that one.

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